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Biden says about passing the bills for his $3.5 trillion agenda including infrastructure spending, and a plan for American families and workers- "It does not matter when, it does not matter if it's done in 6 minutes, 6 days or 6 weeks. We're going to get it done."

Earlier moderates looked to get infrastructure done earlier and progressives wanted the entire package to be done together. Biden opted for doing it all together, it wouldn't matter when.

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Michelson, Mohawk artist from America's indigenous peoples projects Mohawk art on three tons of oyster shells. These oyster shells were present when Dutch settlers settled and unsettled in Michelson's words this part of New York's shoreline and New York Harbour. The shells are on loan from the Billion Oyster Project that aims to restore one billion live oysters to New York Harbour by 2035.  Michelson is preoccupied by the destruction of the indigenous environment by colonialism.

Shifts in perspective are taken in one gulp like in a painting and the motion in Native Storytelling, says Michelson.

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The New Labour Revolution that left the British working class in tatters is the subject of this piece in The Guardian. It is highly skeptical of the far out claims made by the odd couple of Blair and Brown for selflessness and service. A decade later that period of Brown and Blair looks so far off and unreal in its claims of authenticity.

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2G+ concept in Bundesliga means that football stadiums in Germany are filling up to capacity with fans who are double vaccinated or tested not required to wear masks. Small groups of fans not fully vaccinated are separated in separate locations in the stadium requiring masks and social distancing. German states are experimenting with this new concept after some 570 days when stadiums were closed.

Political messages and protest messages are rampant in stadiums as they reopen says DW.com

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The Biden administration makes its decision- it will continue the tariffs president Trump placed on about half of Chinese imports into the US. It also seeks new talks with China on trade. US is also pursuing other policies on trade that were not pursued by the Trump administration. Longer term it is about alliance building in trade with the European Union, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and India. These alliances would jointly approach China on trade, economic and security matters.  Another approach is for the US to build at home. Congress is asked to approve $52 billion in subsidies that the Biden administration wants to give to companies so that they build the semiconductor plants of the future right here in the USA. The Biden administration is also aware that China is doubling down on technology purchases within China from Chinese firms to support its own high tech industries. In response it is laying down a policy of its own for the future step by step. The Chinese market now takes less priority than maintaining technological leadership of the US in all advanced technologies. The Biden administration is steering American industry and technology advancement in this direction. ...

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OPEC and Russian oil producers are planning to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels a day for each month through 2022. Demand is increasing with economic recovery and this will lead to higher oil prices. Oil prices are now $80 a barrel in October 2021. Shortages of natural gas and high prices are leading power generation companies to use oil in place of natural gas. This will increase demand for oil by 500,000 barrels a day. Oil export revenue was cut in half to $119 billion for Saudi Arabia in 2020 and Saudis want to see higher prices to make up for lost revenue. OPEC + that includes Russia decided to end a price war during the Trump administration and this time have designed a strategy that will gradually push up prices. In recent years shale oil producers in the US quickly responded to higher prices of oil and increased production. After the pandemic in March 2020 American shale oil producers in 2021 are not increasing production. This gives OPEC+ better ability to set oil prices at higher levels. ...

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Companies now realize that stretched supply chains is a risky business. Shipping costs have tripled and in some cases are ten times what they were before the pandemic. Logistics, containers, shipping, manufacturing in remote locations, is making this more complex and unmanageable. Cuts in coal consumption in China and economic recovery is pushing up demand for oil leading to $80 a barrel in oil prices. Outages in factories in south east Asian countries and China are leading to shortages in semiconductors and other products in the supply chain. This is affecting automobile production and other production affected by lack of such inputs.

This is prompting a serious rethink of existing supply chains.

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About 2.5 million women in the US have experienced burnout as a result of unequal demands of home and work life. Women have borne the brunt of childcare and work inside the home during the pandemic. Working women have two jobs, one at home and one at work, resulting in them being more prone to burnout as demands increase.

With the closure of schools childcare became a constant and many women quit work so that husbands could continue working. This affected the mental health of women with loss of work and professional life, and increased stress of work at home during the pandemic. Women also put on extra weight as a result. Experts say that the way societal structures and gender norms intersect plays a significant role in women experiencing burnout more than men.

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It would be astounding to know that the average age of the CDU Christian Democratic party members and voters is about 60 years. With the aging of society a large portion of German population is older and mostly conservative, seeking to stay with the status quo. This is the support that chancellor Merkel had and her policies reflected this conservatism. Younger voters felt they were being ignored and have chosen to vote for the Greens or the Free Democrats. Even with the Greens the average age of members is about 48 years, for the FDP 51 years. Compared to this South Asian population is much younger.

 

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India's 135 thermal power plants ahve just 4 days of coal stocks as of October 1, says the Financial Times, citing the power ministry. The power ministry has instructed plants to build up stocks. China is already facing a power shortage after coal fired plants were asked to cut down the use of coal to meet emissions targets. In early August coal fired plants in India had 13 days of stocks. With coal prices rising India did not buy enough coal to build up inventories. The manufacturing sector suffered a contraction in China for the first time since the pandemic started in 2020. China has instructed state owned energy companies to secure supplies of fossil fuel to prevent winter shortages. This further increased price of coal. Coal from Indonesia went up from $60 a ton in March to $200 a ton in September discouraging imports. The result is that with limited supplies and rising prices of coal India faces a perfect storm and power cutbacks as in China. ...